So, I joined Founder Institute Jakarta. That’s an incubation program with very interesting system. So far we had sessions from Adeo Ressi, Andy Zain, Eka Ginting, Izak Jenie, Martin Hartono, Scott Rafer, and KF Lai. The mentors are all awesome, and some are crazy, but well, that’s another story.
In the program, we are split into groups, with whom we work closely to discuss ideas and questions. Yesterday there was this interesting question from a peer in my group.
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You know how I put down 3 ideas, but somehow all 3 are the same (as in all are software/hardware gadgets). What do you all think if i just say my company wants to make cool and creative gadgets (—, —, —, because all 3 require more or less the same components anyways, but different software
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Here is my answer to it.
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I feel like I understand a bit on your dilemma.
So here is what I think, and is hopefully somewhere close to what the mentors will think as well.
I’m sure you have brilliant technical skill. Your ideas reflect that.
And I have no doubt you are able to handle all the three projects.
The question is, how are you going to split your time between the three?
Split the time equally?
That means basically you are tripling development time of each project before they even hit the market.
Or just do whatever interest you at any point of time?
You’ll soon find out that you will be drawn to one project more than to the other two.
This one project that draws more of your interest is probably the one you want to focus on from the start.
In fact, if none of the 3 projects capture your thought in most of your waking time, which means you didn’t take any personal interest into it, you’ll probably end up with a mediocre product, not an exceptional and awesome product.
That is what I can say from my personal experience.
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When I say it’s from personal experience, I meant it.
I started SG-House.com in February 2006 and Singapore-Restaurant.com in September 2006, and plenty of other sites also in the same year. While Singapore-Restaurant.com was started 6 months late, the site quickly catch-up with SG-House.com and in December already match the traffic.
So there is relatively strong growth Singapore-Restaurant.com . Which should have been trigger for me to spend more time on the restaurant site than the property site. But it didn’t happen.
At that time, I work on both sites during my spare time after day job. Everytime I think about my sites, it was always about SG-House.com. I felt that Singapore-restaurant.com has bigger chance for growth, but I just can’t bring myself to work on it. Everytime I’m on my laptop, it’s SG-House.com. Whether checking analytics, making small tweaks, or submitting to online directories, SG-House.com is the only site I could focus on.
I think the connection is there with SG-House.com cause I personally experienced how hard it was to find good rental. But for Singapore-restaurant, there is hardly this connection; I have meals from time to time in various restaurants, but it’s more or less depending on mood and situation rather than deliberately choose the best restaurant.
In 2010, iProperty.com.sg and PropertyGuru.com.sg are both excellent, easy to use property sites with big resources. Mission accomplished. So I sold SG-House.com to iProperty. By right, I should come back and work at Singapore-Restaurant.com , but still it doesn’t happen. There is simply no chemistry there. And without chemistry, it doesn’t work.
Well, why I’m writing this? It’s actually more of a reminder to myself. Cheers…
Got the link for this blog from your tweet. Great blog!
What you said about SG-restaurant vs SH-house is so true. No wonder how lucrative the business looks, in the end we choose to work on things we are really passionate about. Or in Adeo’s term: the one you wanted to work on for 20 years.
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